One Step at a Time - March 2019

[Lizann]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

[MENTION=21602]abcowboy[/MENTION], thank you for your words of wisdom and support. I do need to hear that's it's ok!
Nora, Savannah is just precious and she did get so big from the last picture you posted! They are little rays of sunshine in our lives. OH the paperwork. Hubby and I are going back to the tax specialist again today. Hubby is amazing and hopefully has sorted out the mistakes that were made. I'd say these banks are incompetent but really I think the irs just makes things so complicated! Fingers crossed we got it figured out!
On the bright side mom feels so badly that this is taking up so much of our time she is making us dinner again tonight, which in turn makes me feel bad. Hubby and Dan are happy with her cooking for us though:heartbeat: love my mom. [MENTION=17650]paulywogg[/MENTION] I'm with Nora, hope you're doing ok. I get that things are little slow here, just let us know you're ok? You know we miss you!
Rusty, Bird, Glassie waves and hope you're having a good day.

[paulywogg]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

I'm OK Liz haha Nora,Savannah is such a doll! Getting so big,so fast! Waves to all

[bird]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Hi all,
Doing better today but still wanted to drink for a bit. Seems I will go for awhile without thinking about it much and then have a few days in a row that are just awful. I did get myself some treats Liz, it seems to help..dd1 is at the theatre where she might get the internship. It is her 2nd interview, they gave her tickets to the show. She sent pics, looks nice. Friend called today from Colorado, snowed in and drinking. I liked talking to her though so...Nora, Savannah has grown so much, and cute as can be in her little chair!! Sorry you've been feeling flat, maybe the med change will help......Liz, that was nice of your mom to make dinner, maybe she enjoys it, I know I like to do something nice when people help out. For what it's worth, I think you will do great while hubs is gone....Pauly nice to see you, abcowboy too....b

[NoraC]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

[MENTION=21602]abcowboy[/MENTION] - thanks for your post. Funny thing but today was a better day. Sunshine today - so maybe that was the difference. I know it sounds funny coming from Southern California but it was been over a month of dreary off & on raining. Maybe I'm just not used to it!
[MENTION=17650]paulywogg[/MENTION] - thanks for coming by. Glad you are doing well. We still miss you though. I'll try to do better about cruising the other threads so I can keep up with everyone I've been missing.

Liz - that is so sweet that your Mom is cooking dinner again. So very special. I hope you got your tax mess straightened out. We faxed over the 'final' paperwork (fingers crossed) today. When is your hubby leaving?

Bird - I'm glad that today was a little better. Cravings SUCK big time. I can remember just feeling like I was going to crawl out of my skin. Fingers crossed for dd1.

I must have seen 100-200 butterflies on my way home today. I heard that there are some migrating from Mexico so maybe that is what I saw. Butterflies
I kept slowing down so I wouldn't hit them but they flew up over the car. It was amazing.

Yes, Savannah is so big now. I wish I could get my hands on her without Mommy & Daddy watching me like a hawk. :victorious: They really do. It's funny. I'm sure that will change in time. Ha, ha

Rusty & Glassie - I hope you both have been having an amazing week.

[Glass Half Empty]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Hey all
Liz - sounds like you're still going through some hurdles. Once again we're all so proud of you for the way you've handled all your trials over the last couple of years.

Nora - Savannah is so gorgeous - I love those eyes that you could drown in! Her parents will learn to let go eventually - once they realise it's the only way they can ever have a night off! I'm only now having HRH regularly once a week - and that's only because I'm needed. But that's OK! It just means that the kids are managing fine on their own the rest of the time.

Bird, Pauly, Rusty - thinking of you all. xxx

[bird]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Hi all,
So a long time ag I lived in Michigan for a short time,1985??...anyway I made a friend and we have kept in touch by letter about 4 times a year. So dd1 invited her and her hubs for graduation and they are coming down and staying for a week. I have not seen her since I was 25 or 26. I am excited but also kinda worried about it. They want to take us to some blues fest in Tennessee, which doesn't sound very appealing to me but I do love the scenery up there, maybe we can do a hike. They still drink, I told her I had to quit so got that out of the way. I hope it is a fun time, I haven't seen her for so long and we are different people now. Something to look forward to and plan for.....Glassie, glad you are getting some time with HRH....Nora, I have seen some monarch migrations. Once my friend (the one who died) and I were fishing and we had these bright orange corks. There were thousands of monarchs going by and they would land on the corks. We were very high on pot and drinking. Seems like it went on forever... That is funny about how they watch you!! I'm sure they will be more trusting soon!!....later, have a great Friday

[NoraC]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Happy Friday.

[Lizann]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Happy Friday!
Nora, you do sound better today. When my kids were small I had a hard time leaving them with our parents. They were busy with their lives and had raised us without the benefit of any help as family lived in Europe. I guess in my own convoluted thinking I needed to do this on our own too. Maybe your kids know you work full time and care for your mom, they don't want to add more to your plate. Does that make sense? That's just my thoughts. My daughter much to my surprise has no qualms about leaving Logan, lol. She is solely caring for her parents empty nest symdrome.:congratulatory: that must have been amazing with the butterflies!
Bird, sounds like fun with your Michigan friends. Good for you for putting that out there right off the bat (the drinking). I get that a lot of time has passed and you're different people, but maybe that'll give you more things to talk about and catch up on. R u surprised your daughter did that?
Glassie, how old is HRH now? What kind of things do you do together? Is she a "girlie" girl or a tomboy? Hmm, expressions your not familiar with?
Hubby is going away May 14-18. It occurs to me the last time the boys left me home alone I didn't have Logan. This time I will have Logan everyday and Saturday hubby comes home. Erin and I talked about it yesterday and she said "your a different person now Mom, that was a different time". Ok, let's go with that. Moms taxes were filed yesterday:sohappy: she was pretty down today, though when I talked to her . She is struggling with daddy's birthday which is on Sunday. She talked about it with me yesterday,yeah lots of tears. It's going to get better, right? I miss dad, but I heart hurts for her too.
Rusty, thought of you today. I bought a raspberry "Kringle" today.. I quickly cut it into portions and froze them. This way I won't eat the whole thing in one day!
Went shopping today for the last of the living room redo, window coverings. Whittling down our decision to Roman shades. Now just to figure out fabric and color. Arm chairs are coming tomorrow.
Well, hope you all have a great AF Friday. Like mom always tells me keep your "chin up". (In German, of course)

[Glass Half Empty]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Bird – it sounds as though you’ve had a very interesting life! I hope you have fun with your friend.

Coincidentally, I don’t know if I told you but I have a group of 6 friends that I’ve known since I was 11 (in 1972) but who all live many miles apart. Next week one is flying up from Tasmania and I’m catching up with 3 of them for lunch which will be fun.

Do you mind if I ask about this because it’s something which really interests me? In Australia we have a HUGE drinking culture, but there also seems to be an underlying understanding that whether you drink or not is personal and nobody generally asks why. We have very strict drink driving laws so maybe that helps? And at any given time someone is doing some sort of “challenge” that forbids alcohol as one of the deadly sins.

Anyway – what I was going to say was that to join our Ladies who Lunch next week I’ll have a 2 hour return drive so there will be no temptation.

[Glass Half Empty]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Glassie, how old is HRH now? What kind of things do you do together? Is she a "girlie" girl or a tomboy? Hmm, expressions your not familiar with?

Liz HRH is kind of neither! Her parents and I are pretty keen on not gender stereotyping so she just plays with whatever she likes. Last week her fave was her massive Duplo train set; this week it's jigsaw puzzles - 24/7!. Also, they don't have a TV so she's never seen any Disney stuff or pop culture, so I don't think she knows what the stereotypical "girlie stuff" even means..

[Lizann]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Good morning and happy Saturday! My kids all loved Duplos! The baby has them at his house, they have not made it into ours yet.
GLassie, I'm not sure what your question was. I have had people question what I was drinking and then frown questionably, making me feel obligated to explain why. I feel like my seltzer with lime is the "elephant in the room" because I would usually be holding a glass of wine. At Cjs wedding I drank cranberry juice thinking it would be less of an issue. Of course, no one even noticed. They were all to busy feeling good.

We had quite the hail storm last night. OMG! It sounded like a freight train coming through and I thought tornado. Dime sized hail! My neighbors shingles came off of her roof! All quiet now. Nothing really planned for today, just cleaning up and cleaning out. Windows need to be washed, but darn it I just got my nails done!

Have a great Saturday guys. What's everyone doing?

[bird]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Hi all,
Not much happening, a chilly cloudy day. Just been sitting around reading. Pinky is shedding like crazy, I need to vacuum everything......Liz, that hail sounded bad. Sorry your mom is sad, maybe you can do something special on that day with her. Sounds like you will be very busy while hubs is gone.....Glassie, your lunch with friends sounds fun. That is wonderful HRH is growing up without tv. I love that. I am not sure about the drinking thing here. I have had people ask me if I drink, and people try to get me to drink when I didn't want to......well, back to my library books. Nora, Rusty..waving

[NoraC]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Happy Saturday - well almost Sunday. I hope that you found a reason to smile today. I saw more butterflies.

[Glass Half Empty]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

GLassie, I'm not sure what your question was.

I'm so sorry Liz - I forgot you guys don't all live inside my head! But you answered it anyway. I guess I was wondering what sort of pressure you all get from other people to drink. I've heard so many reports on here and other places that it's really embarrassing to go out and have to explain you're not drinking which isn't the case so much here. It just seems that although most people drink (a lot!) nobody seems to question if you aren't. On any given night at least one person will be: driving/on antibiotics/on a diet/running or have gym the next morning/or simply say they're sick of hangovers - and nobody really questions it.

[Rusty]

Re: One Step at a Time - March 2019

Good Morning, Friends! Happy St. Paddy's Day!:happy2:

It was a busy day for me yesterday....acupuncture treatments...appointments...then spending time with my mom before going to my sister's for our traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner. It was super fun...there were 19 of us as my niece and her husband and 4 kids were visiting. Happy pandemonium with 6 kids 14 and under. Hahah! Today, it's exercise, grocery shopping and paperwork. My SIL offered to take my mom to church today so I accepted her gracious offer. :-)

[MENTION=8902]Glass Half Empty[/MENTION], future Dr. Glassie-to answer your question...and this is just my two cents on questioning what people are drinking: I think we sometimes overthink the question of "what are you drinking?" We at MWO are very sensitive to that question for obvious reasons, but there are a variety of reasons as to why people ask that question. Many times people are just curious because in so many venues, the specialty drinks are different colors in special glasses and those drinks look fun to drink and interesting. Also, in social occasions such as a dinner party at someone's home, it is often a courtesy and/or custom here...that whatever the host/hostess is drinking, the guests will follow their lead. Guests do not want to ask a host/hostess to serve them something they don't have on hand, so a safe bet is to drink whatever the host/hostess is drinking. Also, I know when people serve mixed drinks, they often serve tonic as the mixer as opposed to sparkling water and they don't think to provide it. I don't drink tonic so that's why I bring my own sparkling water or my friends know in advance to have it readily available when I am a guest in their homes. My hard-drinking cousins in Maine used to pressure people to drink....and drink hard...but I've heard in recent years that they have ended that practice, thankfully. I think it's great that Australia has tough drinking and driving laws. We need tougher ones in Wisconsin, for sure! On a different topic, how wonderful that you are still friends with people you grew up with and now you are connecting in person! :-) Delighted that you get to spend a full day per week with little HRH and she is being brought up in a TV-less home.:congratulatory:

[MENTION=2634]bird[/MENTION]-GREAT JOB in fighting off the cravings....I know how it is when they go on for days and you feel you are about to lose your mind. Geez, you are so strong...good for you! So happy for dd1! That is wonderful that you can connect with your friend whom you haven't seen in years and it was an excellent plan to let her know you don't drink anymore. If she presses you as to why you don't drink anymore, you could just say, "I felt it was affecting my health" or "It's just not working for me anymore."

[MENTION=9757]NoraC[/MENTION]-Savannah is sooooo cute! Glassie is right...she does have eyes you can drown in....happily! :-) How cool that you were able to see all those butterflies...ahhh….spring is coming! :-) Well, you are in CA so it probably feels like spring already. I feel badly that you are still dealing with all the financial mess and trying to communicate with your brother and agree on things. Would you want to move to Oregon?

[MENTION=19302]Lizann[/MENTION]-Erin is right...you were a different person then and it was a very different time. Now you have Logan to occupy your time and he will fill all those hours while hubs is in FL. That hail storm sounded scary! You are able to freeze some pieces of kringle and not eat 3 or 4 pieces right away? Wow, you've got strength! LOL. I totally get why your mom is so sad and I am sorry, sweetheart. Those first holidays and special occasions after someone passes away are tough!

Happy hellos to [MENTION=18725]NoSugar[/MENTION], [MENTION=21602]abcowboy[/MENTION] and everyone I missed, Happy and Healthy AF Sunday!